Craig Newmark has set the newspaper advertising model on its ear with his craigslist.org business. It is an advertising model of and by the people. So it was interesting to read his remarks yesterday about newspapers.
“There is a lot of change coming and I want to make whatever contribution I can.”
This article in BusinessWeek online reports more of his comments.
The San Francisco Chronicle has lost millions of dollars in classified over the last five years advertising thanks to Craigslist and now other newspapers around the globe are under pressure from the free/low cost advertising model of craiglist. The guy who created this new model is well connected with the Net generation and his newspaper model will gain an immediate following.
Anyone in new newspaper business who does not know who Craig Newmark is and what craigslist is about is seriously behind the times.